Cyork

Definitely Fat Gitzits. Brown and Green Crawdad colors in particular.

Maine is an excellent choice. We have tons of water to fish and a great variety of fish to catch with world class brook trout fishing (Rapid River in particular, but you can find brookies almost everywhere) and awesome fishing for smallies and landlocked salmon. We also have a strong largemouth population (thanks to illegal stocking >), pickerel, pike, some scattered muskies, rainbows, browns, both varieties of perch, cusk, whitefish, black crappie in select areas, and lake trout and the state stocks places with splake (brook trout/ lake trout hybrid). Saltwater fishing is pretty good as well with stripers and bluefish being popular. The stripers also run up many of the rivers like the Kennebec and Penobscot. Also the state has been experimenting with giving out small numbers of Atlantic Salmon permits (We have done a lot of work trying to get the population to rebound with aggressive stocking and destruction of many dams allowing them to return to spawning grounds). (Edit)* Re-reading the original post, I would suggest moving to the outskirts of Auburn/ Lewsiton, there are plenty of small towns nearby to choose from. It would also be pretty close to a great variety of places to fish (Belgrade region, Androscoggin and Kennebec Rivers, Cobosseeconte, etc) not to mention less than 1 hour from Portland and about 1/2 hour from the 24 hour L.L. Bean Headquarters Store in Freeport. Auburn and Lewiston are decent sized cities (the mall kinda sucks compared to the one in Bangor or the even bigger one in Portland) but there is lots of places to shop/ eat right in downtown Auburn.

After reading that review and this one: http://www.tackletour.com/reviewokumafina.html I'm thinking about checking out one of their mid-range spinning reels.

Poisonblack's new album (comes out in like 2 weeks). "Hatelove" track at the moment.

Terminator T-1. Only spinnerbaits I use.

I'd save some cash and just pick up a Shimano Sahara or Symetre in 1000 or 2000 size. Pair it up with a 6-7 ft light action rod and some 6lb test. Almost all the rapala floaters/ countdowns I use are in the smaller sizes (3-7) and I think light spinning tackle is the way to go.

I've eyehooked many fish. What I usually do is bend the barb down and then slide the hook out so it doesn't rip out their entire eyeball. I've also caught several fish with missing eyes so it's definitely not a death sentence.

4+, probably close to 4 1/2. Nice fish.

Gitzit Pocket Pack (25 tubes in 5 colors, 10 heads) Rapala X-rap size 8 gold 1/4 oz Rat-L-Trap Baby Bass 1/3 oz Mepps Aglia Firetiger Watermelon Yum Dingers or Case Magic Sticks (4") Acme Kastmaster 1/8 oz Rainbow Trout 1/3 oz Mepps Aglia Red/ White Rebel Pop-R Silver/ Blue (3"?)

Hmm that's what they said last time lol

I voted St. Anger, almost picked Reload. Garage Inc wasn't too bad, couple decent songs (albeit most were covers lol) on there.

I chose Master of Puppets over Justice and Ride the Lightning because it has my favorite Metallica song on it........ Disposable Heroes

Watermelon, smoke, any kind of brown (or pumpkinseed) and I usually carry some brighter ones like salt/ pepper or chartreuse if the water is really murky or when fishing in low light conditions.

Metallica in their prime: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEL6_SuQCu8 Same song, present day (2 yrs ago) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygtgS81DrY4 No comparison in my eyes, I really dislike the 2nd performance People keep saying that they're old and blah blah blah but there are other bands from the same era that are just as old and they haven't crapped out as much. But seriously the only Metallica albums anybody should really concern themselves with buying are RtL, MoP, plus AJFA.

The key word being "WAS". They have fallen off big time. At least they had 3 good albums. All these people keep saying their new recordings sound like old metallica but they obviously don't have a clue what they're talking about. This is real, new thrash

95% of what I listen to is european metal (almost entirely from scandinavia/ germany). There are some classic bands from this side of the Atlantic (Megadeth, Exodus, Metallica's 3 non-sucky albums) but if you're into good metal europe is where it's at. Norway has good Black Metal, Sweden has good Death/ and Melodeath, Finland has tons of great stuff (Gothic, Folk/ Heroic Folk, Fantasy, Melodeath, etc) and Germany has awesome Thrash bands that have been around since the 80's and are still flying the flag unlike the vast majority of their contemporaries from this side of the pond. Arch Enemy Amon Amarth Kalmah Kreator Sodom Destruction Eternal Tears of Sorrow Amorphis Ensiferum Children of Bodom Deathstars Norther Nightwish (not really metal) Charon Entwine To/ Die/ For Poisonblack Tarot Immortal Enslaved and many more

21 inch 5.5 lb smallie caught with a shakespeare micro-graphite 7 ft light action, shimano tx1000 with 6lb stren and a brown gitzit tube.

Lol you're missing out. Supposedly someone put pike in the androscoggin (or they somehow got in there from Sabattus Pond :).

Yeah people are doing some dumb stuff, someone put pike in the androscoggin river and bass in the RAPID RIVER (arguably the best brook trout river in the lower 48). Makes me sick.

Yeah Maine's a great place to live if your into outdoorsy stuff. Those are some nice bass too btw, where did you catch them?

Congrats on your first smallie, that's a nice looking fish. I haven't really seen them with coloring that light before.

I used to have a ton on my camera but I foolishly deleted them all save 1 (see below ) That one is of a fish that I think was pretty nice. The perspective is kinda weird with my forearm jutting out (I usually fish solo, so I have to hold the fish and the camera lol). I used to catch a lot of ones like that from my "secret spot" (undisclosed river in western Maine). Here are some other ones of fish taken more recently from the Machias river which is literally like 200 feet from my front door. The Machias River fish are not as big as the ones from the "other" river (usually between 12-17 inches) but they're still decent I guess. Better than nothing lol I'll continue to post more pics in this thread later on. My "secret spot" is in the androscoggin river, long thought to be too polluted to sustain a healthy fishery (It used to be one of the most polluted rivers in north america) it has cleaned up well and now it has eclipsed the penobscot as the best bass river in Maine and is also one of the best smallmouth rivers in the east. There are spots where you can literally sit and catch 2-4 lb fish all day. There is tons of great structure and although it is labeled as a "popular" fishing spot I never saw anyone fishing the same water as me. The trout fishery is nice in the upper reaches as well, the Maine state record rainbow trout was pulled from the androscoggin.

Yep, I use em on a 7' Light action rod with 6lb line.

I, as a Mainer do support efforts to try and save our trout/ salmon fishery but a statewide ban on plastics is ridiculous. If they are so worried about the trout they need to do something about illegal introduction of non-native fish species. That's the real problem. In most of the waters where trout are the main sportfish, bass aren't even present so I would seriously doubt lots of people are using plastics there to begin with. Our state legislature really needs to get it's act together and address the real issue facing our trout and salmon fisheries. They need to enact laws that severely punish people for illegal stocking (thousands of dollars in fines, jail time, life-time ban from fishing in Maine).

I'd bring some gitzit tubes (just grab a variety pack from wally-world) and mepps spinners as well. The gitzit pack will most likely have the basic colors you'll need (047, 200, 215, 219, 220). For the spinners most colors in sizes 1-3 should get the job done but I would recommend silver, gold, firetiger, and red/ white. For rattletraps go with 1/4 oz or 1/8 oz, firetiger, baby bass, and crawdad should fit the bill.